Collection Scope and Content Note

Collection includes letters to relatives in Cazenovia, New York, from Augustus Ward Loomis and his wife, Mary Ann, Presbyterian missionaries to Chekiang Province, China (1845-1849), Indian Territory (1852), and to the Chinese in San Francisco (1865-1867). These letters are mainly concerned with the Loomis' religious views and activities, their impressions of the places to which they traveled, in particular Hong Kong, Canton, Chusan, and Ningpo, China; Chicago and Galesburg, Illinois; St. Charles, Missouri; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Cowetah and Tullahassee, Oklahoma; and with their evaluation of the Chinese and the Creek and Cherokee Indians. They also mention such events and issues as the defeat of Winfield Scott in the presidential election of 1852 and the election of Gerrit Smith to Congress in the same year, the volume of the migration to California and Oregon (1852-1853),
the railroad fever in St. Louis (1853), the question of slavery and whether it was right to buy slaves and allow them to work for their freedom, the assassination of Lincoln, and the capture of Jefferson Davis. Also included are papers (1803-1849) of Ward's father, Seba Loomis, among them deeds for lands in Coventry, Connecticut, and Cazenovia, New York; a survey of his farm in Road Township, Madison County, New York; debtors' writs from Tolland County, Connecticut; a blacksmith's apprenticeship indenture from Windham County, Connecticut; and his will.

Also, papers (1833-1897) of Ward's brother, Edwin Dwight Loomis, among them deeds, bonds, and other documents for land in Cazenovia and Georgetown, New York, and in Campbell County, Dakota Territory, and General Land Office patents and a deed, with related letters from a cousin, George H. Jerome of Iowa City, for War of 1812 bounty lands in Adams County, Iowa. Also includes deeds and other legal papers involving Jonathan D. Ledyard and members of the Ingersoll, Prentiss, Root, and Sweetland families of Cazenovia and Georgetown; naturalization papers of Robert and William Dawson of Pamelia, Jefferson County, New York (1866); and records (1862-1864) of the New England Company, a subsidiary of J. C. Tillotson & Company of Cazenovia, including minutes of the board of directors (among whom were E. D. Loomis and another brother, Silas Lathrop Loomis), lists of share subscribers
in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and bills and receipts; and obituaries and family memorabilia.